World

Pro-Syria Group Takes Credit for BBC Twitter Hack

Hackers claiming to be affiliated with the pro-government Syrian Electronic Army took credit Thursday for hijacking a BBC Twitter account with more than 57,000 followers.

The account, @BBCweather, went rogue at approximately 9 a.m. ET when it tweeted "Syrian Electronic Army was here" and "Long Live #Syria Al-Assad," a message of support for embattled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Subsequent tweets were a mixture of threats and insults towards Israeli Jews, countries in the area (including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Qatar) and governments supporting the Syrian opposition — including the United Kingdom, where the BBC is based.

Chris Hamilton, Social Media Editor for BBC News, acknowledged the hack in a tweet:

The Syrian Electronic Army has in the past claimed responsibility for hacking news or pro-opposition websites and defacing them with pro-government content. It also coordinates propaganda spam attacks, likely using specially designed software to post thousands of pro-government comments on news articles about Syria and on the social media profiles of public officials involved in the conflict. It's unknown whether the majority of SEA operatives work from inside Syria or from elsewhere in the world.

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